The Commitment Word
by Lizicia
Summary: 'Two C words in a day - cancer and commitment is two words too much for him.' House/Dominika, post-8x18.


**A/N:** Whew, what an intense episode, in regards to all the drama and relationships. After watching, I realised how much I like Dominika's character and her relationship with House and then I discovered she's not even on the character droplist here! I don't know if I'm the only one who likes her but apparently my Muse does because this is she and House, post-episode.

**Disclaimer:** David Shore, you obviously own the characters. A word of advice, though - despite it being spelled Dominica whenever I read about her being on the show, she's Polish and would write her name as Dominika, so this is what I did.

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House is sulking again, sitting on his couch, staring mindlessly into the distance. Even the bourbon he's drinking has a bitter aftertaste, not the usual smoothness and the Vicodin he's taking does nothing to dull the pain. It's not even pain, more of a numbness spreading into his limbs and his head while he processes what Wilson told him.

Stage II thymoma. Not a death sentence because it can be cured, as his ever-working brain eagerly tells him. But it's still the C word. Cancer.

He notices the irony of an oncologist having cancer and at any other time, with any other patient he would've been a veritable vat of crude jokes but there's something about your best friend – your _only_ friend – having cancer that takes the fun out of it.

He hears the key turn in the lock and there's the second source of his sulking. Dominika, looking every part sad and ravishing and hurt and beautiful. He caused her pain and for some unexplained reason that is causing him pain and she needs to leave before he says something so he projects the cruelest and meanest parts of himself.

"If you keep coming back, I will be forced to take out a restraining order against you."

"I just forgot something, Greg."

She calls him Greg when she wants something or when she wants to tease him and it strikes him as odd that she chooses this moment to do just that.

"Then take it and get out."

Instead she comes to stand in front of his sitting form, looking at him but he refuses to meet her eyes. "You lied to me and you're the one who's angry? You really are unbelievable."

"Everybody lies, you should have learned it by now."

She lets out a rather loud snort and mutters something in Polish. When their eyes meet, he sees defiance and anger but also something akin to sadness. "I said you are a real bastard, even when you're sulking."

"Take whatever you forgot and leave." He starts to feel the control slipping from his grasp and he really needs her to leave, not look at him like that.

She takes off the ring he put on her finger, tossing it in his lap. "I forgot to give this back to you."

House doesn't touch the ring but merely glances at his own, still on his finger. He hasn't even considered removing it even though he has to.

"You take yours off now and then I'm gone forever."

He doesn't respond nor comply with her request, only looks at her as if he could stare down this minute Polish woman who's filled with so much justified anger and he feels the same thing he did when he was comforting her earlier. It's an odd sort of feeling, like he wants to protect her from the world and not be the source of her pain but that is something he is unsurprisingly failing at.

"Oh, I forget. The great Greg House, the superdoctor who can do whatever he wants to everybody else and who doesn't play by the rules. You never listen, do you? Take it off!"

She lunges at him, trying to force the ring off his ringer but he catches her by the wrists and she tumbles forward, the force of it all pulling her down until she is practically sitting in his lap, straddling him in a way eerily similar to before.

"I am not your wife any more. I never was and now that I have my green card, you can't hold me prisoner."

"You are still my wife, no matter what you say."

She lets out a huff of breath and tries to pull away but House's grip on her wrists is strong. Just like that, he's gone from wanting her to stay far away to wanting her to never leave. And she must see something which he had no intention of showing her as a look breaks over her face, one he hasn't seen before and he barely recognizes it as desire before she catches his mouth with hers and it's exactly like before.

It's frantic and exhilarating and they're moving almost in sync with each other, the anger of them both combining and melting away. He releases her wrists to pull her even closer and she doesn't back away but lets him kiss down her neck, all the while letting out quiet, breathless moans.

His hands touch bare skin beneath her top and she tugs it off impatiently while unbuttoning his shirt and making sure she's not the only one losing control. When her hands reach for his belt, he forgets every notion of remaining atop of this – because she's the one on top of him – and just lets the sensations guide him.

He hasn't touched a woman like this in a long time. Having sex is one thing but this emotion-filled thing they're rapidly approaching is not about the sex and it scares him but he doesn't have it in him to stop.

Dominika distances herself for a second to toss her own pants to the side and then it's just a matter of coming together and losing each other in this wild thing between them, neither in control.

It doesn't last as long as it could because she is so good at what she does – for a living – but when she says his name, it's not about the sex and they both realize it.

She pulls away but remains seated in his lap and they don't say anything for a good while.

"Wilson has cancer."

"You are the worst at talking after sex, did anyone ever tell you this?" It's humorous because there is really nothing else she could be saying. House doesn't want to hear _I'm sorry_ or _It will be alright_ and she gets it. She gets him.

"And you just went from being angry at me to having angry sex with me. _Women_."

"You are not forgiven."

And yet, he is. So he takes the ring and puts it back on her finger and in that instant, the tension in the room shifts once again, tensing but also soothing. She embraces him suddenly and while it should be awkward because they're both still semi-naked, it instead feels familiar.

"I am not a good man, Dominika. I'm no good at this." His voice is a mere whisper because he's speaking from a place he keeps hidden from the world and he's giving her a chance to look inside.

"Really? It seemed like you knew exactly what to do." She doesn't lose the mirth from her voice but it takes a more serious edge because she does realize the importance of this.

She pulls back a little, looking him straight in the eye. "What kind of a wife doesn't comfort her husband when he's feeling down?"

"You don't have to do this."

She smiles and shakes her head. "Why did I choose you for my green card?"

"Because I don't have a conscience and I was more than willing to break the law. And you paid me."

"I already liked you then." She says it like it's nothing. "But now...I think I might try to love you." And that is everything.

* * *

**A/N:** I wasn't planning on this outcome when I started writing it but I guess they just really wanted to have sex. So, there you go. Any thoughts?


End file.
